1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for supplying an automatic apparatus for assembling or working such as a robot with articles therefor, and more particularly such supply method in which said articles are stored or supported in a tape-shaped supply member and said supply member is supplied in the form of a reeled cassette.
2. Related Background Art
For the recent progress of factory automation, there have been proposed various automatic assembling apparatus, but the major technical target to be solved in such apparatus is the rapid, secure and inexpensive supply of articles (component parts) to be assembled.
The most commonly employed method of component supply to the automatic assembling apparatus is the so-called pallet method, of preparing pallets in consideration of the shape, weight and material of the parts to be supplied, arranging said parts in advance on said pallet, then transporting said pallet to a predetermined position, and taking out said parts in succession from the pallet by means of the automatic assembling apparatus, for assembly therein. Such pallet method is applicable to and effective to a certain extent with large component parts, but small parts such as screws are too small for handling in such pallet method and are too many in number for such pallet method.
Even if the pallet method is to be applied to small parts such as screws, there will have to be handled a tedious job of properly aligning such small parts on the pallet.
In consideration of such inconvenience, there is often employed, for such small parts, a vibration part feeder method in which the small parts are loosely contained in a container, and are arranged in one direction and aligned for enabling one-by-one supply thereof, by the vibration of the container.
However, said pallet method or the vibration part feeder method is associated, in case of supplying plural kinds of parts, with a drawback of requiring pallets or feeders matching the shapes of such plural kinds of parts.
A cassette method for avoiding the above-mentioned drawbacks has been proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Sho 60-48855, in which parts are contained in continuous manner in a cassette, as shown in a perspective view in FIG. 4 thereof.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 11, a cassette case 100 indicated by a chain line is provided therein with three studs S rotatably supporting reels 103, 105, 104, wherein belts 101, 102 which can be adhered and separated plural times are wound on said reel 103.
In said cassette 100, articles 109 to be supplied are in advance sandwiched between the belts 101, 102, and wound on the reel 103.
By rotating the winding reels 104, 105, the belts 101, 102 are taken up along rollers 106, 107, 108 to expose the article 109 sandwiched therebetween, and said article 109 can be taken out for example by a robot hand and used for example for the assembling work.
Also for supplying a robot for assembling or working an article with said articles, there have been proposed various methods.
Japanese Patent Publication Sho 63-59813 discloses a structure consisting of a robot running on an endless rail, a peripheral apparatus for working or assembling in cooperation with said robot, and an apparatus for centralized control.
Also Japanese Laid Open Patent Application Sho 51-128775 discloses an automatic assembling apparatus including a reciprocating table having a predetermined moving trajectory, and a part supplying apparatus, a working/assembling machine etc. positioned in concentrated manner close to the trajectory of said reciprocating table, wherein a manipulator provided on said reciprocating table takes a part from said part supplying apparatus and feeds it to the working/assembling machine to effect the required assembling work.